LG VX-9800 melds 'smartphone,' multimedia worlds
Finally there's a compelling entry to the cellphone market that's as equipped for multimedia playback as it is for business applications like e-mail or scheduling.
The LG VX-9800 phone, which hits stores today at a retail price of $349.99 ($299.99 after the standard mail-in rebate and two-year contract), is among the first devices to successfully bridge the gap between PDA-style ''smartphones" popular among business users, and the music-and-video enabled phones popular with the younger set. That's no small feat considering the acumen companies seem to lack in developing middle-of-the-road products, but LG Electronics, which developed the phone for Verizon Wireless, seems to have hit this one on the head.
The 9800's brilliance is not in functionality; it does mostly what any other cellphone can. But it makes a huge leap in design, cleverly folding in a huge, attractive LCD screen, two speakers, and a standard keyboard into a package that's barely thicker than the average clamshell-style phone.
LG hid the screen and speakers on the back of a panel that opens up to reveal the keyboard as well. The screen and speakers are of solid quality for viewing content from Verizon Wireless' video partners -- such as CNN and Fox News -- or listening to your own music through the built-in MP3 player, provided you spring for a separate miniSD card to store it on.
The drawbacks: It only plays music in MP3 format, and digital video formats like MPEG won't work either. Using a Bluetooth headset to make calls was a snap, but curiously, a wireless headset won't work with the MP3 player, so you're still tethered to wired headphones.
Also, the device uses Verizon Wireless' ''Wireless Sync" e-mail protocol instead of more universal software like RIM's BlackBerry or Microsoft's Windows Mobile platforms.
Keith Reed can be reached at reed@globe.com. 